Four Palestinians sustained injuries today in an attack by hardcore Israeli settlers on Palestinians picking olives in their own farms in the village of Yasuf, in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit, according to witnesses.
Yousef Hammouda, a local farmer, told WAFA that around 30 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Rehalim, attacked him and his family with stones while they were picking olives in their land, injuring him in the head, his wife in the foot and his son in the back.
The settlers, he added, also destroyed the windshields of his vehicle, pepper-sprayed other farmers and stole the belongings and equipment of many farmers who were picking olives in their own lands.
Over the last two weeks, the West Bank witnessed a wave of Israeli settler attacks as Palestinian farmers launched the annual olive harvest season.
The attacks included cutting and setting fire to olive trees in various areas across the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces contributed to sabotaging the Palestinian olive harvest season by preventing farmers from reaching their land near illegal settlements or beyond the illegal Separation Wall.
The olive harvest is one of the most important seasons for thousands of Palestinian households in the occupied territories whose incomes depend heavily on this trade.
In 2020, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 40 attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians during olive harvest season, 17 of which were in the Nablus governorate, followed by 10 in the Ramallah area.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency